System and method for relaying an origination request from a home location register to a service specific service control point

ABSTRACT

A method for relaying an ORREQ (origination request) message from an MSC (mobile switching center) to a service specific SCP (service control point) using an HLR (home location register) first receives the ORREQ message including a service trigger indication at the HLR. A service trigger and an identifier for the subscriber are determined from the service trigger indication within the ORREQ message. A subscriber profile within the HLR is accessed responsive to the determined identifier to identify active services for the subscriber. The service specific SCP to provide the particular service associated with the service trigger of a plurality of available service specific SCPs is determined responsive to the service trigger and the active services for the subscriber. An address of the specific SCP is determined by accessing mapping logic and the ORREQ message is transmitted from the HLR to the determined service specific SCP.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/892,998, filed Sep. 29, 2010, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RELAYINGAN ORIGINATION REQUEST FROM A HOME LOCATION REGISTER TO A SERVICESPECIFIC SERVICE CONTROL POINT (Atty. Dkt. No. MPCS-30115), thespecification of which is incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to origination requests (ORREQ) within awireless communication network, and more particularly, to thetransmission of origination requests from an HLR to an SCP within awireless communication network.

BACKGROUND

Within a wireless communication network, an origination request (ORREQ)operation is used to request call origination treatment on behalf of aregistered mobile device. The origination request is relayed by anintervening home location register (HLR) to enable a subscriber toaccess a wireless intelligent network (WIN) service within a particularservice control point located separately from the subscriber's HLR thatimplements a particular service logic program.

Within presently configured ORREQ protocol, the ORREQ is transmittedfrom the mobile switching center (MSC) that is presently serving themobile device making the call to the HLR associated with the mobiledevice. The HLR forwards the ORREQ on to an SCP that utilizes theparameters within the ORREQ to determine the particular servicesrequired by the origination request. The SCP determines the specific SCPthat is able to provide a particular service and forwards the ORREQ tothe service specific SCP. This process requires the forwarding of theORREQ to the initial SCP prior to transmission to the service specificSCP which increases system bandwidth requirements and provides delays incall processing.

SUMMARY

The present invention, as disclosed and described herein, in one aspectthereof comprises a method for relaying an ORREQ (origination request)message from an MSC (mobile switching center) to a service specific SCP(service control point) using an HLR (home location register) firstreceives the ORREQ message including a service trigger indication at theHLR. A service trigger and an identifier for the subscriber aredetermined from the service trigger indication within the ORREQ message.A subscriber profile within the HLR is accessed responsive to thedetermined identifier to identify active services for the subscriber.The service specific SCP to provide the particular service associatedwith the service trigger of a plurality of available service specificSCPs is determined responsive to the service trigger and the activeservices for the subscriber. An address of the specific SCP isdetermined by accessing mapping logic and the ORREQ message istransmitted from the HLR to the determined service specific SCP.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding, reference is now made to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingDrawings in which:

FIG. 1 a illustrates the manner in which an origination request istransmitted from an MSC to various service specific SCPs;

FIG. 1 b illustrates an alternative manner for transmitting anorigination request from an MSC to an SCP;

FIG. 2 illustrates the improved manner for transmitting an originationrequest from an MSC to a number of service specific SCPs;

FIG. 3 is a signaling diagram illustrating the transmission of anorigination request between an MSC and a service specific servicecontrol point and the transmission of the response to the originationrequest according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 a illustrates the origination request message transmitted fromthe MSC to the HLR;

FIG. 4 b illustrates the origination request messages transmitted fromthe HLR to the service specific SCP;

FIG. 4 c illustrates the origination request response message relayedfrom the service specific service control point to the HLR and back tothe MSC;

FIG. 5 illustrates the manner in which the home location registerprocesses the origination request to determine the particular servicespecific SCP needed to provide services requested by the originationrequest;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram describing the operation of the manner forforwarding an origination request from an MSC to a service specific SCPaccording to the present disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a more generic manner forproviding a call message to a service logic unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numbers are usedherein to designate like elements throughout, the various views andembodiments of a system and method for relaying an origination requestfrom a home location register to a service specific service controlpoint are illustrated and described, and other possible embodiments aredescribed. The figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, and in someinstances the drawings have been exaggerated and/or simplified in placesfor illustrative purposes only. One of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate the many possible applications and variations based on thefollowing examples of possible embodiments.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1 a, thereis illustrated the presently existing manner for forwarding anorigination request (ORREQ) from a mobile switching center 102 to aselected one of a number of service specific service control points(SCPs) 104. The origination request is generated at the MSC 102responsive to a call origination request from an associated mobilestation 106. The origination request is transmitted from the MSC 102 toan HLR 108 over link 110. The HLR 108 forwards the origination requestto a generic service control point 112 over link 114.

The generic SCP 112 does not provide the specific service needed. Thegeneric SCP 112 makes a determination from the origination request as towhich service specific SCP 104 is necessary to provide the WIN networkfunctionalities that are required by the origination request. Thegeneric SCP 112 forwards the origination request to a service specificSCP 104 over an associated link 116 or internally to a generic SCPfunctionality. The service specific SCP 104 provides the particularservice to the associated mobile station 106 that is provided by servicelogic programs implemented within the service specific SCP 104.

As described previously, the manner for accessing the services providedby the service specific control point 104 requires relaying of theorigination request from the MSC 102 to the HLR 108 to a first genericservice control point 112 and finally to the service specific controlpoint 104. Some manner for limiting the transmission pathway of theorigination request would improve call processing capabilities and limitbandwidth requirements on the wireless network providing increasedservice benefits to the wireless network service provider and to thesubscriber mobile stations utilizing the wireless network.

Referring now also to FIG. 1 b, there is illustrated an alternativemanner that an origination request may be transmitted from an MSC to anSCP. Rather than transmitting the origination request from the HLR 108to a generic SCP and then onto a service specific SCP, the HLR 108merely transmits the origination request to one of a number of genericSCPs 112. As before, the origination request is generated at the MSC 102responsive to a call origination request from an associated mobilestation 106. The origination request is transmitted from the MSC 102 toan HLR 108 over link 110. The HLR 108 forwards the origination requestto a generic service control point 112 over one of the links 114. Thegeneric SCP 112 will then provide the necessary service required inresponse to the origination request at whatever generic SCP 112 receivesthe origination request.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated an implementation of aprocess and system for relaying an origination request (ORREQ) in amanner that does not require the use of the generic service controlpoint 112, but allows the origination request to be directly forwardedto a service specific service control point. In this case, a servicerequest is provided from a mobile station 202 to the mobile switchingcenter 204. Responsive to the service request, the mobile switchingcenter 204 generates the origination request that is transmitted to theHLR 206 over link 208. Within the HLR 206 the origination request isexamined along with the subscriber profile stored within a localdatabase 210 of the HLR 206 to determine the particular services thatare available to the mobile station 202. The HLR 206 utilizes theinformation within the origination request along with the subscriberprofile information to determine which service specific SCP 212 isrequired to provide a requested service. The HLR 206 transmits theorigination request directly to the service specific SCP 212 over anassociated communications link 214.

The system and method described with respect to FIG. 2 has a number ofadvantages over that described with respect to FIG. 1 in that theintermediate transmission from the HLR to a generic service controlpoint is eliminated. The use of the subscriber profile within the localsubscriber database 210 enables a determination of the service that isavailable responsive to the ORREQ and enables determination of theservice specific SCP 212 that can service the call. The processdescribed with respect to FIG. 1 instead requires the transmission tothe generic SCP 112 which makes the determination as to which serviceshould be applied to the call. Thus, an entire link within the chainbetween the MSC 204 and the service specific service control point 212is eliminated. Another advantage is that the HLR may also chose to relayoriginal ORREQ message (received from MSC) without reconstructing toreduce complexity and processing.

The process described with respect to FIG. 2 also includes advantagesover an existing process wherein responsive to receipt of the ORREQ bythe HLR 108, the HLR 108 generates a service request (SERVREQ) messagethat is transmitted directly to a service specific service control point104. While the SERVREQ process enables the elimination of theintermediate generic service control point step 112, a number ofdisadvantages over the implementation described with respect to FIG. 2are present. The HLR 108 is required to fully deconstruct the ORREQmessage and fully construct a SERVREQ message. Within thedeconstruction, the HLR 108 must support the same or a subset ofparameters between the two messages. Within the implementation describedwith respect to FIG. 2, all of the parameters are preserved without theneed for an HLR interaction. Additionally, the HLR 108 is required tosupport a new SERVREQ message along with a new service ID parameter. Theservice specific service control point 104 is also required to supportthe new SERVREQ message along with a new service ID parameter. Also, theservice specific SCP 103 must support two branches of logic to supportthe same service. In the wireless intelligent network (WIN), the SCP 104will receive an ORREQ message. In a pre WIN case, the SCP must supportreceiving the SERVREQ plus the service ID. Thus, additional support fortwo different types of messages, the ORREQ and the SERVREQ messages arerequired in this implementation. In short, the SCP could receive thesame ORREQ message relayed via the HLR as it would if it came directlyfrom the MSC to the SCP.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a signaling diagramillustrating the manner in which the ORREQ message is transmitted fromthe MSC 204 to the HLR 206 and finally to the service control points214. Additionally, the ORREQ response from the SCP 212 back to the MSC204 is illustrated. The MSC 204 responsive to requests for service froman associated mobile station generates the origination request 302 whichis transmitted to the HLR 206. Referring now also to FIG. 4 a, there isillustrated the configuration of the ORREQ message 302 transmitted fromthe MSC 204 to the HLR 206. The ORREQ message 304 includes a number ofparameters including the BILLID parameter 402, the MIN parameter 404,the ESN parameter 406, the MSCID parameter 408, the PC_SSN parameter410, the DGTSDIAL parameter 412, the ORIGTRIG parameter 414, theTRANSCHP parameter 416 and the MSCCIN parameter 418.

The BILLID parameter 402 comprises a call ID parameter that is used forbilling and redirection purposes when the ORREQ requires call routing.The MIN parameter 404 comprises the mobile identification number of themobile station requesting the call service. The ESN parameter 406comprises the electronic serial number of the mobile station requestingservice. The MSCID parameter 408 comprises the ID of the mobileswitching center providing service to the call. The PC_SSN parameter 410comprises the point code sub-system number of the MSC serving the call.This is included if the SS7 carrier services are used. The DGTSDIALparameter 412 comprises the digits that have been entered at the mobilestation that is being served by the call and identify the called party.The ORIGTRIG parameter 414 comprises the origination trigger thatindicates the trigger responsible for invoking a particular service. TheTRANSCAP parameter 416 comprises the transaction capabilities parameterand indicates the transaction capabilities of the serving MSC 204 at thepresent time.

While the descriptions with respect to FIGS. 4 a-4 c describe a numberof parameters that may be commonly found within the ORREQ requesttransmitted from the MSC to an SCP or in an orreq response transmittedfrom the SCP back to the MSC. These are only provided by way of oneexample and it should be realized that additional parameters ordifferent combinations of the described parameters may be utilizedwithin the ORREQ request and orreq response transmissions.

Referring now back to FIG. 3, once the HLR 206 receives the ORREQ 304from the MSC, the HLR 206 determines which service specific SCP 212 theORREQ should be forwarded to in the manner described hereinbelow andforwards the ORREQ 304 to the identified service specific SCP 212.Referring now also to FIG. 4 b, there is illustrated the configurationof the ORREQ message 304 that is forwarded to the SCP 212 by the HLR 206if the message is reconstructed by the HLR 206. While the implementationin FIG. 4 b illustrates a situation wherein the ORREQ request isreconstructed within the HLR, rather than reconstructing the ORREQrequest before it is transmitted to the service specific SCP theoriginally received ORREQ request from the MSC may be forwarded from theHLR 206 to the SCP 112 rather than reconstructing an ORREQ message fortransmission to the SCP 112. It will also be possible to use some kindof combination of these processes wherein part of the message wasforwarded and part was reconstructed at the HLR depending upon theparticular implementation and requirements of the system. The parameters402-418 are the same as those described previously with respect to FIG.4 a that are transmitted in the ORREQ message 304 from the MSC 204 tothe HLR 206. Added on to the ORREQ message 304 is the parameter SCNDRINparameter 420. The SCNDRIN parameter 420 comprises the senderidentification number of the HLR 206 and indicates to the SCP 212 theidentity of the HLR 206 that has transmitted the ORREQ message 304. Thiswould not be necessary if the message was not deconstructed.

In response to the successful relay of an origination request to the SCP212, the origination request response message (ORREQ) 306 is transmittedback from the SCP 212 to the HLR 206. The ORREQ response message 308 isrelayed from the HLR 206 back to the serving MSC 204. Referring now alsoto FIG. 4 c, there is illustrated the ORREQ response message 306transmitted from the SCP 212 to the HLR 206 and from the HLR 206 to theserving MSC 204. The ORREQ response message 306 includes a number ofparameters including the TERMTRIG parameter 422, the ACTCODE parameter424, the ANNLIST parameter 426, the routing info parameter 428 and theDMH data parameter 430.

The TERMTRIG parameter 422 comprises the termination trigger points thatare currently active for the mobile station. These parameters are onlyincluded if applicable. The ACTCODE parameter 424 comprises the actioncode parameter that identifies the action to be performed if theparticular action to be performed is not implied to the presence ofother system parameters. The ANNLIST 426 includes a list of tones orannouncements that are to be played to the mobile station. If theANNLIST parameter 426 is not included in the announcements based uponother parameters within the ORREQ response reply 306. The routing infoparameter 428 comprises call routing information. The routing infoparameter 428 may include information such as termination listscomprising various call termination information, routing digitscomprising special routing instructions, the routing digits parametersare included if applicable and are not specified within the terminationlist parameter. The carrier digits parameter comprises the callingsubscriber's PIC. The carrier digits parameter is included if applicableand is not specified within the termination list parameter. The DMH dataparameters 430 comprise data for DMH recording purposes. They caninclude information such as the DMH account code digits, the DMHalternate billing digits, the DMH billing digits, the DMH redirectionindicator, and the mobile directory number.

Referring now to FIG. 5, there is illustrated the process occurringwithin the HLR 206 from the origination request 302 that is received atthe HLR 206. The determination of a service specific SCP may beaccomplished in a number of fashions. In one embodiment, a servicetrigger 502 is obtained from the ORREQ 302 by the HLR 206. The HLR 206additionally determines from the ORREQ 302 the subscriber profile 504associated with the user that has caused the generation of the ORREQ302. Utilizing mapping logic 506 within the HLR 206, the HLR 206 maydetermine SCP address 508 necessary to provide the service required bythe ORREQ 302. The mapping logic 506 determines the SCP address 508utilizing the trigger 502 indicated within the ORREQ 302 and theinformation within the subscriber profile 504 of the associated user. Byutilizing the provided SCP address 508 the HLR may forward the ORREQ 302as it was received from the associated MSC to the service specific SCP510 that provides the service required by the trigger 502 that is withinthe ORREQ 302.

In an alternative embodiment, rather than utilizing the trigger 502 andsubscriber profile 504, the ORREQ parameter 302 itself may be utilizedin combination with the subscriber profile 504 to determine the SCPaddress 508 and SCP 510 utilizing the mapping logic 506. Alternatively,the mapping logic 506 could utilize only the ORREQ parameter 503 or acombination of the ORREQ parameter 503 and the service trigger 502 or acombination of the ORREQ parameter 302, service trigger 502 and thesubscriber profile 504. Any combination of these factors may be utilizedby the mapping logic 506 in order to determine a service specific SCP510 and its associated SCP address 508 by the HLR 206 for forwarding ofthe ORREQ 302 to the SCP 510.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated a flow diagram describingthe process for relaying an origination request from an MSC 204 to aservice specific service control point 212. Initially, at step 602, adetection point is hit at the MSC 204 that is serving the mobile stationcausing the generation of a trigger. Responsive to the trigger, the MSC204 generates an ORREQ that is transmitted from the MSC 204 to the HLR206 at step 604. Upon receipt at the HLR 206, the subscriber profileassociated with the mobile station that has generated the trigger isqueried at step 606 by the mapping logic 506 to determine the activeservices that are available to the mobile station associated with thetrigger.

Based upon any number of combinations of the active services availableto the mobile station, the trigger that has been received within theorigination request and the ORREQ request itself, a determination ismade at step 608 by the mapping logic 506 of the service specific SCP312 that can provide the services required by the trigger and indicatedby the subscriber profile. The HLR 206 transmits at step 610 theorigination request from the HLR to the determined service specificservice control point 212. After receiving the origination request fromthe HLR 206, the SCP 212 determines which services to apply for themobile station via the destination address indicated within theorigination request. After successful receipt of the origination requestat the service specific service control point 212, an originationrequest return result is provided to the HLR from the SCP at step 612,and the HLR relays the ORREQ return result to the MSC from the HLR atstep 614.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is illustrated a flow diagram describingthe manner in which any particular type of service requirement raised bya user request can utilize the subscriber profiles within the HLRsubscriber database to determine a location of any particular servicelogic to provide the service. A service trigger requiring a particularservice logic is received at step 702 from a mobile device at theserving MSC. A call message including information about the servicetrigger is transmitted at step 704 from the MSC to the home locationregister of the subscriber requesting the service. The subscriberprofile within the subscriber database is queried at step 706 using HLRmapping logic such that the identity of the service logic that canprovide a service associated with the trigger and its location may bedetermined at step 708. Upon determination of the location of theservice logic, the call message is forwarded at step 710 from the HLR tothe identified location of the service logic.

Using the above-described system and method, an origination request orany other type of call message requiring a particular service logic maybe sent directly from the HLR to either a specific service SCP or someother service logic location based upon an analysis of the triggersinitiating the requested service and the subscriber profile containedwithin the subscriber database at the HLR.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art having the benefit ofthis disclosure that this system and method for relaying an originationrequest from a home location register to a service specific servicecontrol point provides an improved operation of a wireless network. Itshould be understood that the drawings and detailed description hereinare to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive manner,and are not intended to be limiting to the particular forms and examplesdisclosed. On the contrary, included are any further modifications,changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices,and embodiments apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope hereof, as defined by the followingclaims. Thus, it is intended that the following claims be interpreted toembrace all such further modifications, changes, rearrangements,substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for relaying an ORREQ (originationrequest) message from an MSC (mobile switching center) to a servicespecific SCP (service control point) using an HLR (home locationregister), comprising: receiving the ORREQ message including a servicetrigger indication at the HLR; determining the service trigger and anidentifier for the subscriber from the service trigger indication withinthe ORREQ message; accessing a subscriber profile within the HLRresponsive to the determined identifier to identify active services forthe subscriber; determining the service specific SCP to provide theparticular service associated with the service trigger of a plurality ofavailable service specific SCPs responsive to the service trigger andthe active services for the subscriber; determining an address of thespecific SCP by accessing mapping logic; and transmitting the ORREQmessage from the HLR to the determined service specific SCP.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 further including the steps of: receiving an ORREQreply response message from the service specific SCP at the HLR; andtransmitting the ORREQ reply response message to the MSC from the HLR.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular service comprises a WIN(wireless intelligent network) service provided by the service specificSCP.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the MSC comprises a pre-WIN(wireless intelligent network) MSC.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe step of determining the address further comprises accessing atrigger address list.
 6. A method for relaying a call message requiringa particular service from an MSC (mobile switching center) to a servicelogic unit using an HLR (home location register), comprising: receivinga call message including a service trigger indication requiring theparticular service at the HLR, wherein the HLR does not know the servicelogic unit required to provide the particular service; determining theservice trigger and an identifier for the subscriber from the servicetrigger indication within the call message; accessing a subscriberprofile within the HLR responsive to the determined identifier toidentify active services for the subscriber; determining the servicelogic unit to provide the particular service associated with the servicetrigger of a plurality of available service specific SCPs responsive tothe service trigger and the active services for the subscriber;determining an address of the service logic unit by accessing mappinglogic; and transmitting the call message from the HLR to the determinedservice logic unit.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the particularservice comprises a WIN (wireless intelligent network) service providedby the service logic unit.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the MSCcomprises a pre-WIN (wireless intelligent network) MSC.
 9. The method ofclaim 6 further including the steps of: receiving an ORREQ replyresponse message from the service specific SCP at the HLR; andtransmitting the ORREQ reply response message to the MSC from the HLR.10. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of determining the addressfurther comprises accessing a trigger address list.
 11. A home locationregister (HLR), comprising: a subscriber database for storing subscriberprofiles for the at least one subscriber; mapping logic for determininga service specific service control point responsive to at least one ofan ORREQ message and a trigger indication within the ORREQ message,wherein the HLR does not know the service control point for providing aparticular service associated with the trigger indication; and whereinthe HLR determines the service specific SCP to provide the particularservice of a plurality of available service specific SCPs responsive toat least one of the ORREQ message and the trigger indication within theORREQ message and a subscriber profile associated with a subscriber byaccessing the subscriber database and the mapping logic and wherein theHLR further transmits the ORREQ message from the HLR to the determinedservice specific SCP of the plurality of available service specific SCPsto enable the determined service specific SCP to provide the particularservice to the MSC.
 12. The HLR of claim 11, wherein the HLR furtherdetermines the service trigger and an identifier for the subscriber fromthe ORREQ and accesses the subscriber profile in the subscriber databaseresponsive to the determined identifier to identify active services forthe subscriber to determine the service specific SCP providing theparticular service responsive to the service trigger and the activeservices for the subscriber.
 13. The HLR of claim 12, wherein the HLRfurther determines an address of the service specific SCP.
 14. The HLRof claim 13, wherein the HLR accesses a trigger address list todetermine the address of the service specific SCP.
 15. The HLR of claim11, wherein the HLR receives an ORREQ reply response message from theservice specific SCP and transmits the ORREQ reply response message tothe MSC.
 16. The HLR of claim 8, wherein the particular servicecomprises a WIN (wireless intelligent network) service provided by theservice specific SCP.
 17. The HLR of claim 11, wherein the MSC comprisesa pre-WIN (wireless intelligent network) MSC.